Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the ongoing military operation in the northern Syrian district of Afrin should be completed by summer, during a press conference in the Austrian capital of Vienna alongside the country's FM Karin Kneissl on Thursday.

"Iraq and the Syria should be cleansed of all terror organisations. Otherwise all the steps that we are taking on political side will fail," said Cavusoglu. "When it's been asked of me today if it would be completed by May, frankly we hope that if it would be finished earlier than May. Now the critical stages are over."

Cavusoglu also said that Turkey and Iraq will carry out a joint operation against Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) militants in northern Iraq.

Turkey, the US and the EU see the PKK as a terrorist organisation. Ankara considers the YPG to be a Syrian extension of the PKK.